The 3 R's Blog: Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness

(Book Club) Book Talk: ORPHAN TRAIN, by Christina Baker Kline

2013-05-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

Orphan Train: A Novel (book trailer)
Christina Baker Kline (Facebook) (Twitter) (Goodreads)
William Morrow Paperbacks (April 2013), paperback original (ISBN 0061950726 / 9780061950728)
Fiction (historical), 304 pages
Source: Publisher, for review consideration
Reason for Reading: SheReads Book Club selection, May 2013

Opening lines (Prologue): “I believe in ghosts. They’re the ones who haunt us, the ones who have left us behind. Many times in my life I have felt them around me, observing, witnessing, when no one in the living world knew or cared what happened.

“I am ninety-one years old, and almost everyone who was once in my life is now a ghost.

“Sometimes these spirits have been more real to me than people, more real than God. They fill silence with their weight, like bread dough, dense and rising under cloth. My gram, with her kind eyes and talcum-dusted skin. My da, sober, laughing. My mam, singing a tune. The bitterness and alcohol and depression are stripped away from these phantom incarnations, and they console and protect me in death as they never did in life.”

Book description, from the publisher’s website:

Bird's eye panorama of Manhattan & New York City, 1873 (via Wikipedia)

Between 1854 and 1929, so-called “orphan” trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude?

As a young Irish immigrant, Vivian Daly was one such child, sent by rail from New York City to an uncertain future a world away. Returning east later in life, Vivian leads a quiet, peaceful existence on the coast of Maine, the memories of her upbringing rendered a hazy blur. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past.

Seventeen-year-old Molly Ayer knows that a community-service position helping an elderly widow clean out her attic is the only thing keeping her out of juvenile hall. But as Molly helps Vivian sort through her keepsakes and possessions, she discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they appear. A Penobscot Indian who has spent her youth in and out of foster homes, Molly is also an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past.

Comments: I first became aware of the “orphan trains” when I read Laura Moriarty’s historical novel The Chaperone last year. The trains ran between the East Coast and the Midwest between 1854 and 1929, with the mission of finding hope and homes in small-town America for children who’d been orphaned or otherwise left to fend for themselves in the overcrowded, impoverished streets of the city. Organized by the Children’s Aid Society, the trains--a well-intentioned, if controversial, program with a mixed success record--were one the United States’ earliest foster-care initiatives.

In Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline looks to this history to inform the story of two girls’ experience with foster care, eighty years apart. in 1928, Niamh Power, the only surviving daughter of an Irish immigrant family lost in a New York City tenement fire, is delivered to Children’s Aid by neighbors and placed on a train headed west. The train makes several stops along the way, and the children--a diminishing number at each stop--are presented to the locals; some will leave with new families, while others may end up as farm or domestic labor. Niamh is taken in by the Byrnes, a Minnesota couple who give her work in their small clothing business, a mattress on the floor in the hallway, and a new name, Dorothy; the placement ends when the Great Depression starts, and the girl’s luck goes from bad to worse until she ends up with the kindly Nielsens, where her name is changed one more time--to Vivian, after their own lost child.

Niamh/Vivian’s story is set in parallel with that of Molly, a modern-day seventeen-year-old who’s close to aging out of the Maine foster-care system. When Molly’s future is jeopardized by a reckless act--she steals a copy of Jane Eyre from the public library--a deal is struck; she can avoid the juvenile-justice system by doing fifty hours of community service. Thanks to her boyfriend, she finds an assignment helping an elderly woman sort through decades of belongings. The woman is Vivian, and despite the many years that separate them, their common frame of reference in foster care leads to the development of a real connection between her and Molly.

While Molly’s story is secondary to Vivian’s, Kline succeeds in making both of them distinct and intriguing characters, and although the last few chapters of the novel feel a bit rushed, the relationship that grows between them feels genuine. Although the behavior of some of the supporting characters can come across as clichéd at times, they don’t feel flat or overly stereotypical; Kline seems to write even the villains of her piece with some degree of sympathy. Orphan Train is engrossing and engaging, blending little-known history into a novel with contemporary resonance.

Rating: 3.75/5

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Wordless Wednesday: Washing Dishes

2013-05-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

This week's Linked-up Wordless Wednesday prompt is "Washing Dishes." Y'know, sometimes I'd just as soon not...

Guess where we went to get it to go?

My iPhone photos, edited with Snapseed and collaged with PicFrame

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Book Talk: THE EDGE OF THE EARTH, by Christina Schwarz

2013-05-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

The Edge of the Earth: A Novel
Christina Schwarz
Atria Books (April 2013), hardcover (ISBN 1451683677 / 9781451683677)
Fiction (historical), 288 pages
Source: ARC from publisher
Reason for reading: Intended for review in Shelf Awareness for Readers, but didn't finish reading the book in time to meet my deadline

Opening Lines, from the Prologue: "I'm not going to let on I was born here. People always ask what it was like to grow up in a lighthouse, and then they're disappointed by the answer. I'm not much of a storyteller. Anyway, growing up in a lighthouse isn't all that remarkable when you don't know anything different, and I didn't know anything different until I left Point Lucia at nineteen."

Book Description, from the publisher's website
In 1898, a woman forsakes the comfort of home and family for a love that takes her to a remote lighthouse on the wild coast of California. What she finds at the edge of the earth, hidden between the sea and the fog, will change her life irrevocably.

Trudy, who can argue Kant over dinner and play a respectable portion of Mozart’s Serenade in G major, has been raised to marry her childhood friend and assume a life of bourgeois comfort in Milwaukee. She knows she should be pleased, but she’s restless instead, yearning for something she lacks even the vocabulary to articulate. When she falls in love with enigmatic and ambitious Oskar, she believes she’s found her escape from the banality of her preordained life.

But escape turns out to be more fraught than Trudy had imagined. Alienated from family and friends, the couple moves across the country to take a job at a lighthouse at Point Lucia, California—an unnervingly isolated outcropping, trapped between the ocean and hundreds of miles of inaccessible wilderness. There they meet the light station’s only inhabitants—the formidable and guarded Crawleys. In this unfamiliar place, Trudy will find that nothing is as she might have predicted, especially after she discovers what hides among the rocks.

Big Sur, California
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Comments: There's something romantic about the image of a lighthouse high on a cliff, casting its beam to guide sailors and protect ships from rough shorelines. However, the reality of keeping that light on was probably far more a matter of hard physical labor than romance, particularly before that lighthouse ran on electricity. Christina Schwarz's historical novel, The Edge of the Earth, explores that reality along the Big Sur coast of California in the early years of the 20th century, building up the drama between the two families who keep the Point Lucia lighthouse without downplaying the work involved in what they do.

The life and work of a lighthouse keeper wasn't one that Trudy envisioned for herself as the educated only daughter of a prosperous Milwaukee family, but falling in love with Oskar Swann--the cousin of the man she's expected to marry--is just the first step toward that unexpected life. Adjusting to the isolation of the Point Lucia lighthouse--the Swanns and the other lighthouse family, the Crawleys, may see no one but each other for months on end--is a challenge for the socially-inclined Trudy. However, the scientific bent of her mind is engaged by her new natural surroundings. Other aspects of her curiosity are stirred by the sense that the Crawleys have secrets, but the physical and emotional energies involved in starting a marriage and a demanding job at the same time and in a strange place at times keep her from exploring either of those interests.

Like her protagonist, Schwarz's interests as a novelist also seem pretty diverse here: history, natural science, relationship and emotional drama, anthropology, and more than a little seasoning of Gothic mystery. With all of these elements packed into under 300 pages and a plot that seemed to change direction several times, The Edge of the Earth felt both overstuffed and underdeveloped to me--and sometimes, both at once--but it thoroughly held my attention. Trudy's appeal as a protagonist and narrator was a big factor in that, and so were the well-chosen details that Schwarz chose to depict her world, establishing a distinctive sense of time and place that anchors the novel.

I wasn't entirely satisfied with The Edge of the Earth because I'm not sure exactly what it's trying to do, as a novel. It's too brief and too meandering to be epic, but at times it feels like it wants to be. It's an intriguing look at an unfamiliar piece of California history through the eyes of a woman a little ahead of her time, and I'd have liked more of that--with a little less of the family-secrets melodrama.

Rating: 3.75 / 5

Other reviews: BookPage

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Sunday Salon: right here, right now (May 19, 2013)

2013-05-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

Time: Saturday evening, for posting Sunday morning

Place: Home

Eating: There are certain foods I associate with my childhood, and some of them are foods I've rarely found since. There was a certain type of bread we used to get at the bakery called a "tea biscuit"--a little crumbly, a little sweet, something like a scone, but plain. I discovered these Shortcake Biscuits at Trader Joe's this weekend--I don't think they're the exact thing, but taste memory is telling me that they're closer than anything else I've come across. Yum!

Drinking: Plain ol' water right now...

Reading: I just started an ARC for Shelf Awareness that will probably be my only review there till late summer/early fall--I think I mentioned that I was on hiatus and not getting any galleys from them until after our vacation next month. By the time I ask to be put back on the rotation, they'll probably be sending out titles for September.

I finished Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline a couple of nights ago, and will be posting my thoughts on this She Reads Book Club selection later this week.

She Reads is taking the month of June off, and since I won't have SA deadlines either, I'm feeling a little at loose ends, with several weeks of only reading what I feel like reading ahead of me! It's helping me get into vacation-reading mode already, though...I'm thinking about bringing mostly YA print books, plus plenty of e-books on the iPad.

Listening: We finished the Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy this week, and I'm trying to decide on a next audio for my drives with Spencer. I have a couple of the Harry Potter audiobooks, but if you have any suggestions for good books to read by ear with a thirteen-year-old boy, please share! When he's not in the car with me, I'm still listening to the Roger Ebert memoir and my various podcasts.

Blogging: I may start having time for it again! I've chipped away at some of my feed-reader backlog over the last few days, and I wrote two reviews this weekend. I think I'm still a few weeks away from what I consider my "normal" blogging activity level, but this feels pretty good!

Promoting: Armchair BEA is NEXT WEEK, y'all! Are you signed up yet? Have you seen the daily topics?

Enjoying: Gorgeous spring-weekend weather here in Southern California!

Avoiding: Housecleaning. I think it will catch up with me next weekend...but thanks to Memorial Day and a Monday off, at least I'll have more time for it then!

Anticipating: Star Trek Into Darkness this afternoon at the ArcLight in Sherman Oaks!

How's your weekend going?

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Weekly Top Posts: 2013-05-19

2013-05-19T04:00:01-00:00

Book Talk: TELEGRAPH AVENUE, by Michael Chabon

2013-05-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

Telegraph Avenue: A Novel
Michael Chabon
Harper (September 2012), Hardcover (ISBN 0061493341 / 9780061493348)
Fiction, 480 pages
Source: ARC received at Book Expo America 2013
Reason for reading: #readchabon group read

Opening lines: "A white boy rode flatfoot on a skateboard, towed along, hand to shoulder, by a black boy pedaling a brakeless fixed-gear bike. Dark August morning, deep in the Flatlands. Hiss of tires. Granular unraveling of skateboard wheels against asphalt. Summertime Berkeley giving off her old-lady smell, nine different styles of jasmine and a squirt of he-cat.

"The black boy raised up, let go of the handlebars. The white boy uncoupled the cars of their little train. Crossing his arms, the black boy gripped his T-shirt at the hem and scissored it over his head. He lingered inside the shirt, in no kind of hurry, as they rolled toward the next pool of ebbing streetlight."

Book description, via the publisher's website:
As the summer of 2004 draws to a close, Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe are still hanging in there—longtime friends, bandmates, and co-regents of Brokeland Records, a kingdom of used vinyl located in the borderlands of Berkeley and Oakland. Their wives, Gwen Shanks and Aviva Roth-Jaffe, are the Berkeley Birth Partners, two semi-legendary midwives who have welcomed more than a thousand newly minted citizens into the dented utopia at whose heart—half tavern, half temple—stands Brokeland.

When ex–NFL quarterback Gibson Goode, the fifth-richest black man in America, announces plans to build his latest Dogpile megastore on a nearby stretch of Telegraph Avenue, Nat and Archy fear it means certain doom for their vulnerable little enterprise. Meanwhile, Aviva and Gwen also find themselves caught up in a battle for their professional existence, one that tests the limits of their friendship. Adding another layer of complication to the couples' already tangled lives is the surprise appearance of Titus Joyner, the teenage son Archy has never acknowledged and the love of fifteen-year-old Julius Jaffe's life.

Comments: You might think that since I posted weekly check-ins about my progress with this book for the #readchabon read-along I did with Kim, it would be easy to tie together bits and pieces from those posts and call it a review of Telegraph Avenue. I might have thought so, too, but I’ve been noodling around with this for about a week. I don’t know that I have much to say about the novel that I didn’t say already, but for posterity’s sake, I do want to get my thoughts collected into one place.

Oakland's Diesel Bookstore transformed into "Brokeland Records" for the September 2012 release of Telegraph Avenue.

The setup of Telegraph Avenue introduces Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe, co-owners of Brokeland Records, a struggling used-records shop on the titular avenue, a main artery connecting Oakland and Berkeley, California. The store's struggles may be about to get tougher, as an entertainment superstore is poised to move into the neighborhood. Archy's and Nat's wives, Gwen and Aviva, also work together, as midwives in Berkeley Birth Partners, and Nat's son Julius has a new friend with an unexpected connection to Archy. The plot follows these two families and several other characters who orbit Brokeland through a summer of unanticipated events and rash decisions--and almost all of it engaged me, although plot is usually not my primary interest in reading Michael Chabon’s fiction, and I acknowledge that he’s not above contrivance and convolutions in that aspect of his stories.

Sentence composition is one of the reasons I've loved reading Chabon since his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh; saying he has "a way with words" is completely inadequate. But since I'm so besotted with the way he writes--and if I haven't gone on record before that he is my #1 Author Crush, consider it done now--sometimes it's hard for me to look past the structure to consider the substance of what he's writing.

That said, Chabon seems to be making more (or at least more obvious) attempts at “substance” here than he has previously. It intrigued me that Chabon spent more time with the black characters in Telegraph Avenue than the white ones; it also made me a bit uncomfortable, given that Chabon is white, Jewish, and much more personally familiar with the “Berkeley” side of this story than the “Oakland” side. And when I thought about that reaction, I got a little uncomfortable with my own discomfort.

Getting back to the writing, I can’t go without mentioning the eleven-page-long third section of the novel--a single sentence, mostly written from the viewpoint of a parrot. Yes, it’s undeniably virtuosic writerly trickery, but I was seven pages into it before I even realized that it was all one sentence, and to me, that means it worked. When I finished the section, I commented to my husband:

Me: "This guy just wrote a sentence that was eleven pages long."
Tall Paul: "Is that even legal?"
Me: "It is if you do have a license to do literary tricks like that, and this guy most definitely does."

Aside from the parrot’s-eye-view piece, I appreciated the way that Chabon's explorations into genre during the last decade or so colored this return to more literary fiction. I loved the smart pop-culture references, which cover such a wide range--assorted musical genres, comics, classic science fiction, film theory, television--that even if you don't get them all, your own particular form of nerdery will probably be represented. Granted, I have an abiding weakness for smart pop-cultural references in most of my entertainment anyway, but I particularly like sensing that they're not just tossed in; for the most part, I found them to be well-chosen, functional details that help flesh out scenes and characters.

I’m not sure that Telegraph Avenue is as ambitious a novel as Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winner The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and I don’t think it fully achieves the ambitions it does have. That said, I generally applaud that kind of ambition, and feel a little let down when it doesn't quite stick the landing. But when someone writes the way Chabon does, the letdown isn't quite as rough. At the same time, I think this may be his most down-to-earth novel since the admittedly less ambitious (and my personal favorite) Wonder Boys, and I applaud that as well. There were times I totally loved Telegraph Avenue times it frustrated me, and a very few times when it bored me...and so I offer one more round of applause to Michael Chabon for thoroughly engaging me in this little Northern California world.

Rating: 4.25 / 5

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Wordless Wednesday: Smile!

2013-05-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

There's nothing that makes a kid (of any age) smile like Christmas does.

Christmas 2012

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Sunday Salon: Right Here, Right Now--Mother's Day!

2013-05-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

Time: Early morning (it's still "early" till 9 AM, right?)

Place: Still in bed, writing on the iPad

Eating: Nothing yet. Staying in this morning--on a kid-free Mother's Day--and thinking about whether I want to do something different for breakfast.

Gratuitous Christmas photos of our kids for Mother's Day!

Drinking: Water that got a little too warm overnight.

Reading: Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline, this month's She Reads Book Club selection. Also, parts of several other books, but not getting very far with anything. This is the saddest stretch of reading time I've had in ages.

Listening: Spencer and have about an hour left of Life, the Universe, and Everything, so we'll finish it this week. On my own, I've started Roger Ebert's memoir, Life Itself, read by Edward Herrmann, aka Grandpa Gilmore to my fellow fans of those ...Girls. On a related note, I've bought the audio of Lauren Graham's first novel, Someday, Someday, Maybe, and I'm looking forward to having Lorelai herself read it to me soon.

Making: Stacks and piles and bags...we're getting started on a big "clean out the closets (and drawers, and shelves)" project around the house this weekend.

Blogging: Heh. Blogging, what's that? I'm kind of embarrassed to call myself a blogger right now--this is just about as sad a stretch for blogging as it is for reading, although I do plan to get my "official" review of Telegraph Avenue written up today. It'll get better by the end of this month, though, I think, since the audit's winding down...and then I'll go on vacation for ten days during June. I haven't yet decided what I'm doing around here then.

Promoting: Voting in Armchair BEA's first annual Bloggers Choice Book Awards--you have till tomorrow to have your say!

Anticipating: It's just over a month away, so I can start getting excited for our vacation now! We will begin and end with two weekends in Boston, bracketing three days in the White Mountains in New Hampshire and two on the Maine coast. I grew up in Connecticut, and Maine is the only New England state I've never been to. I'm hoping mid-June will be a good time to introduce it all to my family of California natives.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms--and for those who aren't moms, to your moms, too!

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Weekly Top Posts: 2013-05-12

2013-05-12T04:00:01-00:00

Wordless Wednesday: "Only a mother could love..."

2013-05-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

...raising the kids to be cosplayers. (Although from what I've seen, there's usually a good chance that dads are pretty involved with this, too.)

Original photos by Paul Vasquez and Florinda Vasquez, edited with Snapseed; collaged with PicFrame; text by Phonto

Top left: Eleventh Doctor, WonderCon 2013

Bottom left: Tenth Doctor with Eleventh Doctor companion Amy Pond, Gallifrey One, 2013

Right: Renaissance Pleasure Faire, 2013

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#readchabon, check-in the last: In Summary (spoiler warning!)

2013-05-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

Kim and I have been reading Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue together for the past month, along with anyone else who's chosen to read it with us. We've been checking in here at The 3 R's Blog--

April 15: Section I (through page 124)

April 22: Sections I and III (through page 250)

April 29: Section IV (through page 381)

May 7: Section V (through page 465)

and tweeting our thoughts with the #readchabon hashtag.

We decided to talk about the last section of the novel and our reactions to the whole over e-mail this past weekend. Excerpts follow--and we did discuss some very specific plot points, so if you have not finished Telegraph Avenue yet, beware of spoilers!

Oakland's Diesel Bookstore transformed into "Brokeland Records" for the September 2012 release of Telegraph Avenue.

Florinda: I finished the book this morning, and was mostly satisfied with the ending (and I didn't really expect to be, so that was a nice surprise).

Kim: I liked it too, although I didn't see the real estate sales thing coming? Did they hint or set that up earlier? I may have missed it.

I'm still not sure I get the point of the plot with Luther and Chan, aside from some intrigue, a way to stop Dogpile, and to give Archy daddy issues. Although now that I type it, maybe that's enough? I guess it just seemed disconnected to me. I'd have rather spent more time with the foursome of Gwen and Archy and Nat and Aviva.

What did you like/not like about the ending?

F: I think you answered your own question :-). I really don't know either, because in some ways it's a plot contrivance, and as much as I adore Chabon, he's not above plot contrivances (which usually seem to involve characters he's more interested in than I am).

I don't remember any hint of the real-estate thing earlier either. I hope it works out.

My favorite thing about the last section? Gwen deciding to go to med school. I hope that works out too--maybe she and Aviva could have an innovative OB practice a few years down the road.

I was really worried we were going to get an unwarranted tragedy of some kind at the end, although I couldn't guess what--I had this weird sense of foreboding going into the last section. I'm glad I was wrong.

K: That's the word I wanted. The Luther/Chan storyline felt contrived which somehow seems lazy for a writer as good as Chabon. In some ways, the real estate deal and Gwen going to medical school are also a little contrived. I didn't see either of them coming, so they seem a little convenient. I do love the idea of Gwen in med school though, and I hope she and Aviva are ok eventually.

I thought there was going to be some tragedy too. I mean, the section is called "Brokeland," so it seemed likely something would fall apart. But it really was pretty positive, all things considered. No one died, and all of the characters that I think we're supposed to like seem headed off in positive directions.

You've mentioned a couple times that Chabon is often more interested in some characters than you are -- can you explain what you mean? Is something he's done in other books? This is only my second of his (my first was The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay), so I'm not sure if I've seen that as much.

F: I don't recall any characters that Chabon was more interested in than I was in ...Kavalier and Clay, but there was definitely one in The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (where most of the last chapter seems to come from somewhere else) and a couple in Wonder Boys (who don't show up in the movie, so maybe I wasn't the only one who felt that way about them!). In Telegraph Avenue, it was mostly the kids (Titus more than Julie)--I understand why they're in the story, but I'm just not into them.

I'm sorting out how to approach my review--it feels different when you've already been talking about a book for a month. There were times I totally loved it, times it frustrated me, very few times when it bored me...but I don't think it's dislodged Wonder Boys as my favorite of his novels.

K: Yeah, I didn't find Titus and Julie that interesting either. But I felt similarly about Luther and Valetta, like they were expanding out a story that I would have liked to stay more contained. But that may also be asking something different from the book than what Chabon was trying to do.

... I think my overall impression of this one is that it felt more ambitious than it needed to be. I loved parts and was frustrated by parts, but I always had a little nagging feeling like it was sprawling too much and that it would have been able to say more if Chabon had tried to do a little less.

That said, the writing was just gorgeous -- visceral and raw and evocative and all those good adjectives. He's a pleasure to read, even when the story isn't going where you want or expect it to go.

F: I may just have to quote you on this: "I think my overall impression of this one is that it felt more ambitious than it needed to be. I loved parts and was frustrated by parts, but I always had a little nagging feeling like it was sprawling too much and that it would have been able to say more if Chabon had tried to do a little less" because I think you nailed it. I really enjoyed reading it--it seemed to move quickly, and I never felt bogged down--but its reach was a little too long. I generally applaud that kind of ambition, and feel a little let down when it doesn't stick the landing. But when someone writes the way Chabon does, the letdown isn't quite as rough.

I still need a little time to work out what to say in my "for the record" review of Telegraph Avenue (which probably will include some things I've said already), but I really need to thank Kim right now for suggesting we tackle it as a "buddy read"--months after we both brought galleys of the novel back from BEA 2012!

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Sunday Salon: Right Here, Right Now (May 5, 2013)

2013-05-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Time: 7 AM (more or less)

Place: The family room, in the recliner, with my laptop literally on my lap (well, on a lap desk, but still living up to its name)

Eating: Nothing yet--thinking about what I'd like for breakfast this morning

Drinking: Just water right now, but either coffee or tea will soon follow

Reading: I finished Telegraph Avenue yesterday, and Kim and I are talking about it via e-mail today as we get ready to wrap up our readalong on Tuesday. My actual review of the book will probably be separate from that post. Today I'm reading Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline for my book club, and I'm hoping to finish up that Louisa May Alcott biography this month (yes, that would be the one I started in March…).

Listening: We have about two hours left of Life, the Universe, and Everything and I'm pretty current on my podcasts, so I'll be ready for a new audiobook in another week or so–I just haven't made up my mind what it'll be yet.

Making: Preliminary decisions about what books to bring on vacation next month. I'm considering bringing only e-books and audios, but I'll probably end up with at least a couple of print books in my suitcase too–although they won't be books with review deadlines! (I'm pretty sure I'll stick with that particular decision.)

Blogging: Truthfully, it'll probably continue at its present plodding pace until after we get back from our New England trip (that's the aforementioned vacation–two weekends in Boston, separated by a few days each in New Hampshire, where my stepdaughter Kate will be attending college next fall, and Maine), except maybe during Armchair BEA week. And that reminds me…

Promoting: Nominations are open this weekend only–and voting begins tomorrow–for the first Armchair BEA Bloggers Choice Book Awards, so if you have a few minutes, please submit your favorites from last year for consideration (these awards will honor books released in 2012):

“We realize that with so many bloggers joining our ranks and participating in our humble event each year, we have a truly golden chance to crowd source the best books of the year before each year!

"The best part!? There will be an onsite live-streamed event. A real awards ceremony with trophies and cool stuff! We'll try to see what authors will be at BEA and able to come accept their awards.

"We need you to help spread the word and fill in these handy dandy nomination forms….You have the entire weekend to nominate. The top three books with the most unique votes will go to the voting round. Monday we'll begin voting!”

Enjoying: Making a big dent in the ol' feed-reader backlog…the old-fashioned way. (I'm not commenting much, but I am reading!)

Avoiding: Spending too much time outside until the smoke from the Springs wildfire dissipates. We're not far from where most of it's been burning–in fact, Tall Paul and I were driving through the area just last weekend.

The Springs fire as seen from Thousand Oaks, 5/3/2013; photo by Paul Vasquez

Anticipating: Seeing Iron Man 3 this afternoon (although not quite as eagerly as I'm anticipating Star Trek Into Darkness two weeks from today).

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo! How's your weekend going?

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Weekly Top Posts: 2013-05-05

2013-05-05T04:00:01-00:00

Book Talk: THE CAT, by Edeet Ravel (via Shelf Awareness)

2013-05-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

The Cat
Edeet Ravel
Pintail (March 2013), trade paper original (ISBN 0143186450 / 9780143186458)
Fiction, 240 pages

A version of this post was previously published as a starred review in Shelf Awareness for Readers (April 12, 2013). Shelf Awareness provided a galley of the book (via the publisher) and compensation for the review.

Opening lines: “Her cage was in the upper corner of the room. There were three rows of cages, and many of the cats, when they saw us coming, jumped out of their tubs, stretched their paws through the diamonds formed by the criss-crossed wires, and meowed at us.

“I remember how drawn my son was to those cats, the ones who wailed for our love.”

Book description, from the publisher’s website
Single mother Elise is completely devoted to her eleven-year-old son; he is her whole world. But that world is destroyed in one terrifying moment when her son is killed in a car accident just outside their home. Suddenly alone, surrounded by memories, Elise faces a future that feels unspeakably bleak—and pointless.

Lost, angry, and desolate, Elise rejects everyone who tries to reach out to her. But as despair threatens to engulf her, she realizes, to her horror, that she cannot join her son: She must take care of his beloved cat. At first she attempts to carry out this task entirely by herself, shut away from a frightening new reality that seems surreal and incomprehensible. But isolation proves to be impossible, and before long others insinuate themselves into her life—friends, enemies, colleagues, neighbors, a former lover—bringing with them the fragile beginnings of survival.

Comments: The relative brevity of The Cat, Edeet Ravel's fictional exploration of a mother's grief, by no means blunts its emotional impact.

Elise's son has been the most important thing in her life since the day he was born. When she suddenly loses him in a tragic accident just outside the home they share, she struggles to find any reason to go on living without him. But one waits, literally, at her feet: the boy's beloved cat, Pursie. The fact that there's still someone on earth whose life depends on her pushes Elise forward, however reluctantly, through the days and weeks after her son's death.

However, don't let the title mislead you into thinking that this is yet another a human/animal bonding story; in fact, the relationship between woman and feline is less central to the novel then its title would suggest. As Elise documents her journey through the aftermath of losing her son, it's apparent that she's at least as resentful of Pursie's need for her as she is grateful for it; like most of her relationships with anyone other than her son, this one is difficult and not entirely satisfying. I found Elise's habit of not referring to her deceased child other than as "he" or "my son" was also less than satisfying, but I came to appreciate it as a telling detail; distancing, and yet perhaps indicative of the depth of a mother's pain in that she cannot bring herself to use her dead son's name.

Ravel has crafted a wrenching portrait of the complexities of grief. Elise's swings between guilt, anger, and crushing sadness; withdrawal and connection; and regression and ultimate progress toward recovery are affecting and emotionally true.

Rating: 3.75 / 5

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Wordless Wednesday: Home

2013-05-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is the place I've come home to since November 2008.

My photos, edited with Snapseed and collaged with PicFrame

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#readchabon, check-in the third

2013-04-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

Kim and I are reading Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue together this month, along with anyone else who wants to read it with us. Discussions are here at The 3 R's Blog as noted--

April 15: Section I (through page 124)
April 22: Sections I and III (through page 250)
April 29: Section IV (through page 381)
May 7: Section V (through page 465)

and on Twitter at #readchabon.

Last week, I mentioned a few of the questions that this novel was making me ask myself, and before we move on, I wanted to get back to them and share a few of the responses.

"Do I really think that writers should only write from their own personal experiences? No, I don't, unless they're writing memoirs.
So maybe this is the better question: Do I think it's presumptuous for a novelist to write and voice characters informed by a background that he couldn't really know from personal experience? And when I don't have that background or experience either myself, how can I assess its authenticity? Or should that even be one of the things I assess?"

The comments suggested that perhaps it's not really a general matter of a

novelist writing from outside personal experience--as Jeanne noted, this applies to pretty much anything written in genres such as science fiction and fantasy--as it is a more specific response to writing about race, which continues to be a complex and fraught subject for Americans. As Harri3etspy reflected:

"I think the unease is not about the author writing outside his personal experience but about race specifically. I've been thinking about this a lot in the considerable wake of reading Richard Powers' The Time of Our Singing, wrestling with my own expectations. Mostly, I think, it comes down to the thing you mentioned in your last comment above, Florinda -- that I can't imagine asking some of those questions or addressing some of those issues without that experience. And yet as Jeanne points out, why should race necessarily be different than any other type of experience? Maybe because it's so hard to put on? It's not just about who you are and what you do but what people hand back to you about yourself."

I'm not completely done reading Section IV as I prepare this post for Monday morning, but it hasn't raised as many philosophical questions for me. This part's been much more about the story, and as promised, it's also been about spending more time with the women. I still have the sense that Chabon's more interested in Gwen than in Aviva, but we've seen more development of both. I'm less interested in the boys at this point than the writer is.

I'm still loving the writing, and when that's the case, I'm not really a reader who needs a lot of plot. That said, I have a sense that the story is building toward something--but I'm still not sure what, and I have an uncomfortable feeling it may turn out not to be much of anything. I'm thoroughly along for the ride, but at this point, there's not that much of it left, and I'm less certain of where we'll end up than I was last week.

If you're reading--or have already read--Telegraph Avenue, we'd love to have you join our #readchabon conversation. We'll be wrapping things up next Tuesday, May 7.

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Sunday Salon: Right Here, Right Now (April 28, 2013)

2013-04-28T11:30:00.002-07:00

A hiking trail in Simi Valley (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Time: Mid-morning, Sunday. Starting this at 9:40 AM with the hope to be done before 10:30, especially since not much has changed since last Sunday. (Finishing at 11:25 AM, thanks to assorted distractions.)

Place: At my dining room table in Simi Valley, California, where it's sunny and 63 degrees, with a forecast high of 82. (Again, not much change since last week...)

Eating: Toast with Nutella, or Breakfast, Part 2 (not to be confused with "second breakfast."

Drinking: Water and coffee, alternating.

Reading: Section IV of Telegraph Avenue for #readchabon check-in #3 (tomorrow) and starting on the May selection for She Reads (my first with that online book club). I haven't done very well at finishing books this month, but all things in other areas of my life considered, I'm not feeling too bad about my reading pace right now.

English: 42, The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life according to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Watching: Nothing right now, and we're pretty near current on the DVR, so I'm not sure what it'll be later.

Listening: The Hitchhiker's Audio Adventure has moved on to Life, the Universe, and Everything, which was my least favorite of the original Douglas Adams trilogy (when it actually was only three books) and the one I've never re-read until now. I'm curious to see if I like it better this time.

Making: Plans, and backup plans, and contingency plans. They don't affect the blog, but if any of them pan out, they may make me an even more inconsistent blogger than what I've become lately, which leads to...

Blogging: Confession: my blogging is somewhat on autopilot right now, and I'm managing not to mind it all that much. I have so many things going on in other areas of my life lately that I have to choose a few other things not to stress over quite so much, and blogging will just have to be one of them.

Promoting: There's still plenty of time to register for Armchair BEA, and almost 200 people have already done it (although I'm not yet one of them, so I really need to get on that)! The official agenda is now posted, with two daily featured themes; this year, each day will highlight a particular book genre for discussion in addition to a blogging-focused topic.

Tuesday, May 28: Introductions & Classics

Wednesday, May 29: Blogger Development & Genre Fiction

Thursday, May 30: Giveaways & Literature

Friday, May 31: Ethics & Non-Fiction

Saturday, June 1: Keeping it Real & Children's/Young Adult Literature

Sunday, June 2: Armchair BEA Wrap-Up

(Disclosure: I am a co-founder and current team member of Armchair BEA).

Enjoying: An extended weekend, for no particular reason--I took Friday and tomorrow off from work just because I needed a break from a hectic month!

Avoiding: See above re: "blogging." Confession: I hate when bloggers blog about what they can't talk about ("...but it's really exciting, and I'll have a big announcement soon!"), but I feel like I'm being of those bloggers right now. That said (and as I said earlier), the things I can't talk about don't really have much to do with the blog, so in that context, it doesn't really matter that I can't say much about them; I just feel that I should mention that they're diverting me from the blog these days.

Anticipating: My birthday gift of a spa day will take place tomorrow, exactly a month after my birthday. I am really looking forward to that pedicure!

How's your weekend going?

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Weekly Top Posts: 2013-04-28

2013-04-28T04:00:01-00:00

Featured at Book Bloggers International: Me!

2013-04-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

Today's one of those days when I invite you to see what I'm doing somewhere else!

So, what is Book Bloggers International exactly anyway?

Well, here's the idea:
There are SO, so, so many book bloggers all over the world and it is impossible for each of us to find each other via links on other people's blogs and social networking sites alone. We thought it would be a practical and fun idea to create a blog specifically for the purpose of introducing ourselves to one another and finding new book blogs to love and book blogging buddies to love, too!

BBI will offer blogging tips, giveaways, and other fun features as it builds a book-blogger database. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the "fun feature" is a blogger spotlight, and I was honored to be invited to be one of its first participants. My "introduction" is posted today.

Please go visit Book Bloggers International to see how you can be a featured book blogger too, and follow the site--it looks like it could be a great way to expand your book-blogging circle!

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Linked-Up Wordless Wednesday: A "Fur" Cry from Cotton...

2013-04-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

...or any other naturally-produced fabric, most likely. (I'm fudging this week's prompt because I couldn't find a satisfactory depiction of "Cotton." I hope the rest of the LUWW gang can do better!)

ALF and Friends
Rose Bowl Flea Market, Pasadena CA, April 2010

My photo, edited with Snapseed

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#readchabon, check-in the second: I Have Questions!

2013-04-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

Kim and I are reading Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue together this month, along with anyone else who wants to read it with us. Discussions are here at The 3 R's Blog as noted--

April 15: Section I (through page 124)
April 22: Sections I and III (through page 250)
April 29: Section IV (through page 381)
May 7: Section V (through page 465)

and on Twitter at #readchabon.

In the comments on last week's discussion, Kim asked:

"Which of the secondary characters are you most looking forward to (possibly) learning more about?"

At that time, I felt that we really hadn't heard much from, or about, Nat's wife Aviva (business partner of Gwen, wife of Nat's business partner Archy), and I was wondering if she'd become a bigger part of the story as it progressed. That really hasn't happened, and based on where the novel seems to be going, I'm beginning to think it might not.

It intrigues me that Chabon is spending much more time with the black characters in Telegraph Avenue than the white ones--it also makes me a bit uncomfortable, given that Chabon is white, Jewish, and much more personally familiar with the Berkeley side of this story than the Oakland side. And when I think about that reaction, I get a little uncomfortable with my own discomfort. Do I really think that writers should only write from their own personal experiences? No, I don't, unless they're writing memoirs.

So maybe this is the better question: Do I think it's presumptuous for a novelist to write and voice characters informed by a background that he couldn't really know from personal experience? And when I don't have that background or experience either myself, how can I assess its authenticity? Or should that even be one of the things I assess?

I'm only halfway through Telegraph Avenue right now, and I'm not prepared to answer those questions yet, but I do think they need to be asked. I am prepared to say that I am still loving the writing, and the wide range of pop-culture nerdery that Chabon brings to it.

This week's reading schedule covered two sections of the novel. One is only eleven pages long...a single sentence, eleven pages long, mostly written from the viewpoint of a parrot. I was seven pages into it before I even realized that it was all one sentence, and to me, that means it worked. When I finished the section, I commented to my husband:

Me: "This guy just wrote a sentence that was eleven pages long."
Tall Paul: "Is that even legal?"
Me: "It is if you do have a license to do literary tricks like that, and this guy most definitely does."

If I forgot to mention it last week, we'd love to have you join our #readchabon conversation if you've read Telegraph Avenue--you don't have to be reading it with us!

Sunday Salon: Right Here, Right Now...(April 21, 2013)

2013-04-21T10:24:00.001-07:00

Time: 10:14 AM, as I complete this for posting

Place: At my dining room table is Simi Valley, California, where the current temperature is 67 degrees and today's forecast high is 81. The sun is out and the screen doors are open.

Eating: A mix of oatmeal and Kashi cereal, mixed with lots of sliced strawberries--spring is here and the price of strawberries is dropping!--and Trader Joe's Crumpets with Nutella

Drinking: Water and sweetened, milky black tea, in this cup:

Reading: Pretty much the same as at my last report. I'm on schedule with #readchabon, the Telegraph Avenue read-along I'm hosting with Kim, and will work on preparing tomorrow's check-in post after I'm done with this one.

Watching: Later today (probably), last night's Doctor Who on the DVR

Listening: Spencer and I have 40 minutes left on The Restaurant at the End of the Universe audiobook, so we should be moving on to Life, the Universe, and Everything by the end of this week. And I'm not listening to any other audiobooks right now because I'm fixated on TV-related podcasts. The Mad Men Happy Hour does detailed, scene-by-scene episode recaps--it's like vintage Television Without Pity in audio form--plus commentary. I like the recapping, but I occasionally lose patience and yell at my car stereo because the hosts misunderstand references or context and I want to correct them. A Mad Man With a Box has nothing to do with Mad Men; that podcast is for recaps and news of Doctor Who.

Making: Later today, a big pot of albondigas (Mexican meatball soup)--that, and a nice assortment of leftovers in the fridge, may mean not much cooking will need to be done for the rest of this week!

Blogging: I have posts scheduled every day through Thursday this week, which hasn't happened for quite a while--and may not happen again for a while, either. I'm actually not minding the three-times-a-week posting schedule as much as I thought I would.

Promoting: Armchair BEA registration is open! If you won't be at Book Expo America this year, join our concurrent online event (May 27-June 2)...and if Armchair BEA is new to you, check out the new FAQ. (Disclosure: I am a co-founder and current team member of Armchair BEA).

Enjoying: Right now, a quiet morning at home. Trying to stay in the moment here...

Avoiding: There must be something, according to what the fortune cookie told me yesterday:

Hmm, look at the comma, A "long overdue" decision or a "lenghty and late" one?

Anticipating: Scheduling a spa day--my birthday gift from Tall Paul--and hoping to get approval of a couple of days' vacation time in which to do it!

How's your weekend going?

Weekly Top Posts: 2013-04-21

2013-04-21T04:00:01-00:00

(Audio)Book Talk: GIRL WALKS INTO A BAR..., by Rachel Dratch

2013-04-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

Girl Walks into a Bar . . .: Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle
Rachel Dratch (Twitter)
Gotham (February 2013), Paperback (ISBN 1592407579 / 9781592407576)
Nonfiction/memoir, 272 pages
Source: Purchased audiobook (Penguin Audio, 2012; Audible ASIN B007R6B0AY)
Reason for reading: Personal

Opening lines:
"'Hey, I know you!' said the stranger.
"I was on Third Avenue in New York, emerging from the Starbucks.
"The stranger turned to his friend and nudged him. 'Do you know who that is? SNL! SNL, man!'
"The friend gave a vague, fake nod of recognition. The stranger tried to convince his friend to be more excited.
"'She's funny!' He turned back to me. 'What's your name again?'"

Book description, from the publisher's website:
Anyone who saw an episode of Saturday Night Live between 1999 and 2006 knows Rachel Dratch. She was hilarious! So what happened to her? After a misbegotten part as Jenna on the pilot of 30 Rock, Dratch was only getting offered roles as “Lesbians. Secretaries. Sometimes secretaries who are lesbians.”

Her career as a female comedian at a low point, she suddenly had time for yoga, dog-sitting, learning Spanish—and dating. Dratch reveals the joys and terrors of putting herself out there in a quest to find love and then becoming a mother in an undreamed-of way. With riotous humor, she recounts breaking the news to her bewildered parents, the awe of her single friends, and romance and coparenting with her baby-daddy, John.

Filled with behind-the-scenes anecdotes from Dratch’s time on SNL, Girl Walks into a Bar . . . is a funny book with a refreshing version of the happily-ever-after story, full of sensitivity, candor, and plenty of comic relief.

Comments: True confession: Not having been a regular viewer of Saturday Night Live in decades, most of what I knew about Rachel Dratch before reading her memoir Girl Walks into a Bar . . . came via her friend and colleague Tina Fey, who had cast her as one of the leads in the pilot of 30 Rock ...and was infamously forced by NBC to re-cast the role. (Now that 30 Rock is TV history, I don't think even Rachel Dratch would argue with that decision, but I digress.) I even shied away from Dratch's book for awhile, fearful that the connection might make it seem like a poor imitation of Fey's beloved (by me, at least) Bossypants. However, Dratch's book covers its own territory, in its own unique voice.

Rachel Dratch: RISK! at 92YTribeca (Photo credit: 92YTribeca)

Opening by addressing the elephant-in-the-room question, Rachel Dratch assures us that she has worked since she left SNL and lost the 30 Rock gig--just not necessarily in roles that many of us might have seen. And unless you run into her somewhere on the streets of Manhattan, you're unlikely to see her at all in her latest role, although it's one she's sure to keep for years.

Finding herself without steady employment for the first time in nearly two decades, and approaching 40 with the realization that she had no plan to realize her life-long plans for marriage and children, Dratch decides that it might just be the right time to have a personal life. She has no shortage of good friends, but hasn't been in a relationship for a while, and she's really never dated. (And once she makes a few attempts at it, she understands why.) Then, one night, she meets a guy in a bar. John lives in Northern California and is visiting New York City on business, but they hit it off well enough to embark on a bicoastal relationship that neither is in a hurry to define. Six months down the road, however, life defines it for them: parents-to-be. Rachel and John discover that unplanned pregnancies, and the life upheavals that accompany them, aren't just for teenagers.

I didn't find Girl Walks into a Bar . . . non-stop laugh-provoking, but I was pleasantly surprised by how engaged I was by Dratch's story, and I really enjoyed listening to her tell it. Dratch's acting and comedy background is in improvisational theater. Improv is driven by the principle of "yes, and...," in which the actors work without a script to develop a scene from cues and props at hand. It strikes me that she's applied that principle to the last several years of her life as well as to her work, and I find that very inspiring. As someone whose life went through some unexpected reconfigurations after 40, I'm trying to embrace a little more of that "yes, and..." ethos myself.

Rating: Book 3.75/5, Audio 4/5

Linked-Up Wordless Wednesday: Yellow

2013-04-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

Shades of sunny yellow on a cloudy day at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire, Irwindale, CA

My photos, edited with Snapseed and collaged with PicFrame

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#readchabon: check-in the first

2013-04-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Kim and I are reading Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue together this month, along with anyone else who wants to read it with us. Discussions are here at The 3 R's Blog and on Twitter at #readchabon, although we haven't actually discussed much there yet.

This week's goal was to get through the first of the book's five sections (through page 124), and I was pleased to make it there before the last minute on Sunday night. I was also pleased to notice Kim's profession of love for a particular sentence, which she shared on Instagram:

Sentence composition is one of the reasons I've loved reading Michael Chabon since his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh; saying he has "a way with words" is completely inadequate. But since I'm so besotted with the way he writes--and if I haven't gone on record before that he is my #1 Author Crush, consider it done now--sometimes it's hard for me to look past the structure to consider the substance of what he's writing.

Berkeley: A People's Bicentennial History of Telegraph Avenue (Photo credit: wallyg)

Section I, "Dream of Cream" (a title that goes unexplained until after more than 100 pages) introduces the major characters and conflicts of the novel. Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe are co-owners of Brokeland Records, a struggling used-records shop on a street connecting Oakland and Berkeley, California. The store's struggles may be about to get tougher, as an entertainment superstore is poised to move into the neighborhood. Archy's and Nat's wives also work together, as midwives in Berkeley Birth Partners, and Nat's son Julius has a new friend with an unexpected connection to Archy. The relationships between the families are certainly knotty, but I'm pretty sure we don't know the full extent of that knottiness yet.

I hope we don't know all of that yet, anyway; I'm enjoying getting to know these characters, but I don't really feel like very much happened in this section. This doesn't bother me in the slightest, because I'm happy to luxuriate in Chabon's writing for as long as I can, taking time to get into the story. I'm loving the smart pop-culture references, which cover such a wide range--assorted musical genres, comics, classic science fiction, film theory, television--that even if you don't get them all, your own particular form of nerdery will probably be represented. Granted, I enjoy smart pop-cultural references in most of my entertainment anyway, but I appreciate that they're not just tossed in here; for the most part, I find them to be well-chosen, functional details that help flesh out scenes and characters.

Chabon has introduced a large secondary cast in addition to his main characters. I'm wondering which characters will be under-developed, and if any will get more attention than their role in the story really warrants. I'm curious to see where the plot goes, and not entirely certain that it will even matter. And at this stage, I'm appreciating the way that Chabon's explorations into genre fiction during the last decade or so are coloring this return to more literary fiction.

I'm enjoying my reading experience with Telegraph Avenue so far and eager to talk about it. If you're not doing #readchabon with us but you have read the novel, we'd love to have you join our conversation!

Here's the rest of our #readchabon schedule:
April 22: Sections I and III (through page 250)
April 29: Section IV (through page 381)
May 7: Section V (through page 465)

Weekly Top Posts: 2013-04-14

2013-04-14T04:00:01-00:00

Currently (or Close Enough): April 11, 2013

2013-04-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

This format had been appropriated from Kim and Heather, and possibly some other bloggers--I've been seeing it in Sunday Salon posts for a little while.

Time // 8:50 PM, Wednesday, April 10

Place // On the sofa, next to my husband, in front of the TV

Eating // Nothing right now. Had a veggie burger and chips for dinner, and two Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs (Easter treats!) for dessert

Drinking // Water (water everywhere)

Reading // Telegraph Avenue (first read-along check-in is on Monday!), Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women, and nothing for review right now because I just can't keep up!

Watching // I'm excited that Mad Men is back, and for the first time ever, we're watching it in mostly real time (DVR delayed to avoid commercials). I'm also loving the Doctor's new companion, Clara, on Doctor Who.

Listening // The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, read by Martin Freeman. Spencer and I finished The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy last week; Stephen Fry read that one, and the two narrators voice some of the characters differently. Freeman's characterization of Zaphod Beeblebrox sounds like a bit player from The Sopranos. I've also added a new-to-me NPR quiz show, Ask Me Another, to my podcast rotation.

Making // Nothing of note. Maybe some albondigas this weekend...

Blogging // Not much writing, even less reading. But it's only temporary, I swear!

Promoting // E-mail you'll actually enjoy: the Daily Puppy newsletter!

Enjoying // Getting stuff done at work. (Yes, it's come to this.)

Avoiding // As many commitments as possible till I get a few more things knocked off the to-do list

Anticipating // New England in June--our first family vacation since 2010, and possibly the last multi-generational one we'll take.

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Linked-Ip Wordless Wednesday: Party!

2013-04-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

So what if it's the middle of the week. Everybody have fun tonight!

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Book Talk: OLEANDER GIRL, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (via Shelf Awareness)

2013-04-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

Oleander Girl: A Novel
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Free Press (March 2013), hardcover (ISBN 1451695659 / 9781451695656)
Fiction, 304 pages

A version of this review was previously published in Shelf Awareness for Readers (March 29, 2013). Shelf Awareness provided a galley of this book (furnished by the publisher) in order to facilitate the review, and compensated me for its original publication.

Opening lines: “I’m swimming through a long, underwater cavern flecked with blue light, the cavern of love, with Rajat close behind me. We’re in a race, and so far I’m winning because this is my dream. Sometimes when I’m dreaming, I don’t know it, but tonight I do. Sometimes when I’m awake, I wonder if I’m dreaming. That, however, is another story.

I smile and feel my mouth filling with cool, silver bubbles. Rajat’s fingers brush the backs of my knees. Even in my dream I know that if I slow down just a bit, he’ll grab my waist and pull me to him for a mischievous kiss. Imagining that kiss sends a shudder of pleasure through me. But I don’t want it yet. The chase is too much fun.”

Book description, from the publisher’s website:
Orphaned at birth, seventeen-year-old Korobi Roy has enjoyed a sheltered childhood with her adoring grandparents. But she is troubled by the silence that surrounds her parents’ death and clings fiercely to her only inheritance from them: the love note she found in her mother's book of poetry. Korobi dreams of one day finding a love as powerful as her parents’, and it seems her wish has come true when she meets the charming Rajat, the only son of a high-profile family.

But shortly after their engagement, a heart attack kills Korobi’s grandfather, revealing serious financial problems and a devastating secret about Korobi's past. Shattered by this discovery and by her grandparents’ betrayal, Korobi undertakes a courageous search across post-9/11 America to find her true identity. Her dramatic, often startling journey will, ultimately, thrust her into the most difficult decision of her life.

Comments: Before she died in childbirth, Anu Roy instructed that if her baby was a girl, she was to be named “Korobi,” for the beautiful and unexpectedly resilient pink oleander flower. Growing up in her grandparents’ home in Kolkota, Korobi is well-loved and well-educated, and when the eighteen-year-old orphan gets engaged to prosperous Rajat Bose, adulthood seems to be falling perfectly into place for her. But nothing is perfect, and in both the Roy and Bose households, many things aren’t what they seem; the sudden death of Bimal Roy, Korobi’s grandfather, on the night of the engagement party is the first in a series of cracks in their foundations.

Indian-American novelist Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Korobi is the title character of Oleander Girl, but in telling her story, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (One Amazing Thing) also explores the stories of those around her, and it’s the intersections and overlaps of those stories that make this multiple-perspective novel engrossing reading. Korobi is uncovering long-held secrets that will permanently alter her sense of self, but she’s not the only one whose life is on the verge of change. Her grandmother is unprepared for her new widowhood; her fiancé’s efforts to settle his life before the wedding are complicated by his work and his previous girlfriend; and her search for answers thousands of miles from home may cause real harm, both physical and financial, to her future in-laws. All of these characters, and their relationships with one another, will be tested over the course of the three months between Korobi and Rajat’s engagement party and wedding date.

Divakaruni explores issues of class and politics in modern India and immigrant America within the context of Oleander Girl, but family issues are at the heart of the novel, and that gives it cross-cultural appeal. Told with empathy and intelligence, and accompanied by intrigue, the stories--and issues--of the Roy and Bose families should appeal to a broad range of fiction readers.

Rating: 4/5

Sunday Salon: Another year older, another book unfinished...

2013-04-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

I wasn't in the Salon last Sunday because I was celebrating Birthday Weekend at WonderCon Anaheim. Here's one of my favorite photos from the event.

Eat your hearts out, fangirls! (Well, no, don't really. Sadly, these are NOT the genuine article.)

The week after Birthday Week has not been one of the most productive of my reading life. I'd like to say that's because of extended and prolonged celebrations, but sadly, it's mostly been due to work. I think I have four books, not counting audios, in various stages of reading progress right now, and two reviews that need to be written before I forget what to say. I'm hoping to get them done this weekend, but so far, I haven't gotten any further than "hoping to get them done."

The "good news/bad news" about the untimely reviews is that neither of them is for pay, or on a deadline that isn't self-imposed. In fact, I won't have any reviews like that for the next couple of months. This week, I very reluctantly requested a hiatus from my Shelf Awareness reviewing until things slow down at the day job, where it'll be one deadline after another through next month. Since freelancing is not how I earn my living--someday, maybe, but not now--I can accept redirecting that time to the work that actually pays the bills around here...but I don't have to like it. That said, I'll admit that taking those review responsibilities off my plate--for now--has reduced my stress level a bit, so it was probably the right call. Sigh.

I do still have some "scheduled" reading plans this month, but the sense of deadline pressure is much less. I have an online-book-club read for next month's discussion--my first with this group--but with just over 300 pages to be finished by the beginning of May, I'm not feeling overwhelmed by that one.

And I'm excited about #readchabon, the read-along of Michael Chabon's

Telegraph Avenue that I'm co-hosting with Kim. It's pretty informal--there's no sign-up or posting requirements--but if you'd like to read and talk about the novel with us, we'll be reading roughly 125 pages a week and having check-in discussions here on this schedule:

April 15: Section I (through page 124)
April 22: Sections II and III (through page 250)
April 29: Section IV (through page 381)
May 7: Section V (through page 465)

We'll also be talking about Telegraph Avenue on Twitter as the mood strikes--hence the hashtag, "#readchabon"--so you can jump into the conversation there, too.

Since this is a relatively relaxed approach to "deadline reading," I'm hoping it'll leave me some time to deal with all those reads-in-progress (before I end up with another Historian on my hands). I don't know how it is for you, but for me, getting things done--including getting books finished--tends to be one of the most effective ways to lower my stress level. Also a good stress reducer: reminiscing with another favorite photo from WonderCon.

The Eleventh Doctor and His Wife, WonderCon Anaheim, March 2013
(as if time and space matter to them!)

Are you de-stressing with a good book this weekend?

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